Tencent’s New Battle Royale Game ‘Ring Of Elysium’ Brings Extreme Winter Sports To The Genre

I’d heard about Ring of Elysium (RoE) in the past but never really paid close attention to it was pretty much limited to Asia.

Now the game is finally making its way to the US, releasing for free on Steam on September 19th as an Early Access title.

It also looks way different than what I remember from early footage. Tencent has put a ton of work into the game and it looks like no other battle royale title out there currently.

For one thing, it takes place in a snowy mountain map and features a bunch of extreme winter sports.

Ring of Elysium CREDIT: TENCENT

Players can snowboard, hang-glide, ride ziplines, drive snowmobiles and more as they traverse the frigid map. They can even scale cliffs like Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider games.

Extreme weather is also at play in the battle royale game. Rather than just have a slowly diminishing circle push players closer to one another, dynamic weather events will change the shape of the map in real time. For instance, avalanches wreak havoc to portions of the map, killing players and destroying buildings in the process.

There is still a slowly encroaching storm, however. Dynamic weather also means players will have to contend with hypothermia as the storm worsens and the cold threatens survival. As the storm sets in, however, you won’t just notice your health diminishing. Snow will blur your vision, the cold will make you move slower and will even impact how your weapons function.

Ring of Elysium CREDIT: TENCENT

The storm progresses in three stages:

Safe zone (white) – Sunny with temperatures around 5℃ 41F

Warning zone (blue/yellow/red) – As the match progresses the sunny weather will change to snow, then to heavy snow. The temperature will begin to drop from 5℃ 41F to -14℃ -25F.

Danger zone (black) – In the final stage the storm will escalate to a Blizzard. The temperature will drop below -15℃ and the extreme cold will begin to affect the player’s HP.

Here are two images of the game, the first in the safe zone and the second once the storm has reached you:

Safe zone.CREDIT: TENCENT

Danger zone.CREDIT: TENCENT

There’s also a day/night cycle with three stages: Morning, Afternoon and Night.

In another twist to the battle royale format, players will need to reach the escape helicopter each match in order to win. Four players will be able to board it, meaning four players can win each time. That reminds me of Fortnite’s Getaway mode a little bit, which is a good thing.

You can reach the helicopter using several different vehicles:

Cable car (can fit in 4 persons) move at a steady speed on a fixed route.

4-person-vehicle – Off-road vehicle

2-person-vehicle – snowmobile

4-person- fishing boat

Passengers can fire on all the vehicles above. Players driving snowmobiles will be able to use machine guns and pistols.

Ring of Elysium CREDIT: TENCENT

You can also fly across the map on a hang-glider:

Ring of ElysiumCREDIT: TENCENT

The game also features cover mechanics so players can hide behind structures, lean out and so forth. You can switch seamlessly between third and first-person POV as well.

All told, this is a pretty exciting addition to the battle royale genre and could put even more pressure on PUBG especially since this will be on Steam and free-to-play. Tencent owns a big chunk of PUBG Corporation and Fortnite developer Epic Games, but the Chinese megacorporation is obviously not content with just two major battle royale games. It should be interesting to see if this takes off. Here’s the new trailer:

P.S. As a side-note I’m really not a fan of ‘Ring of Elysium’ as the title for this game as it conveys neither the battle royale nature of the game or its unique wintry features. Blizzard Royale would probably put Tencent into a legal battle with Activision-Blizzard, but some other catchy winter-themed title might be more effective for Western audiences.